Juanita la Larga: a Novel

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Not at all artistically I have introduced to my readers several of the main characters who will figure in this story, but I have two left yet, and it is only fitting to provide some prior information about them. Don Paco, as we have said, was an encyclopedic man of varied talents and abilities, the cacique’s right hand and the subordinate intellect who ensured that the cacique’s will was respected and carried out. Nevertheless, in Villalegre there was another person who, on a smaller scale and with more limited aims, if she did not rival, then clearly approached Don Paco in merit because of her myriad skills and abilities and because of how industrious and clever she was. I am referring here to the celebrated Juana la Larga.1 It seems impossible that this woman should succeed in doing so many diverse things so well. She worked a great deal, but undeniably to great advantage . She lived in her own home, which had no wine press and no wine cellar, but which in other respects was almost as good as Don Paco’s. She lacked olive groves and vineyards, but she had accumulated some modest savings which, according to the vox populi, exceeded twelve thousand reales, and which were growing by leaps and bounds, because she had lent them to very trustworthy individuals , and at ten percent annual interest, because since she was a God-fearing woman, and very scrupulous and very charitable, she did not want to be considered a usurer. 17 1. The use of la Larga (definite article and adjective combination) applied to her name suggests that Juana excels in any number of traits, some of which—shrewdness, cleverness, astuteness—the author has already attributed to her. 18 Juanita la Larga In her different occupations Juana earned, on average and according to the most judicious calculations, about eight reales a day or, say, three thousand a year. And this does not include the gratuities , tips, gifts, and presents that she often received, all of which, and more, she unquestionably deserved. Nobody did a better job of directing the slaughter of pigs. Juana salted the hams with singular expertise. The seasoning with which she prepared the loins before frying them in lard was subtle and delicious , and she tinged the lard with a golden red color that delighted the eye, gave off a subtle fragrance, and awakened the appetite of the least hungry person who saw it and smelled it. Her pork and blood sausages far surpassed the best ones of either kind from Estremadura. And she was so expert at everything that even when she rendered the lard she obtained the crunchiest and saltiest pork rinds ever eaten. As a result wealthy farmers and other well-off patrons with good taste vied for the services of Juana la Larga, as they all wanted her to go to their houses to butcher pigs. When it came to pastrymaking she was no less accomplished, and all year long, and particularly at three solemn times, she did not know how to be at the thousands of places where she was called. Before Christmas it was to make the sweets and delicacies that sybaritic , well-to-do people usually order for their enjoyment, like, for example, puff pastries, and the famous anchovy pies or empanadas with diced tomato and onion filling that are eaten there with chocolate . She made, also like no one else, sugar omelettes and shortcakes much superior to the highly praised ones to be had in Morón,2 egg and wine doughnuts, and a wide variety of biscuits and syrups. If Juana had not known so much about other things, it could have been said that her most marvelous specialty was making fritters, and consequently she was kept constantly on the go the days preceding Holy Week. At the homes of the leaders of the confraternities she 2. Morón de la Frontera, agricultural center in the province of Seville. Juanita la Larga 19 made spongy pancakes, gajorros,3 and exquisite pestiños4 that melted in the mouth, and with which numerous personages indulged themselves , personages like the apostles, Nazarenes, King David the saint, and all the other prophets and glorious figures of the Old and New Testament who marched in the delightful processions that are customary in Villalegre. Juana was not idle at vintage time either, nor did she lack...